Tag Archives: CIP

Rumor has it that there’s a public meeting on June 15, something to do with the City budget. As Kiffi pointed out, as of today there’s no information available on the City calendar, or anywhere on the website that I could find.

Having been reminded by Jane’s comment that the City Administrator’s Friday Memo of 5/28 indicated that noticed would be published in the Northfield News on the 29th, I searched for “public notice” on the NNews website and came up with this item (typo in date, given as “5-59-10”) about three-quarters of the way down the page:

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN, that the City Council of the City of Northfield, Minnesota will meet on June 15, 2010 at 7:00 p.m. at the City Hall, 801 Washington, Street, Northfield, Minnesota, for the purpose of conducting a public hearing on (a) the intention to issue general obligation capital improvement plan bonds in an amount not to exceed $14,400,000 and (b) the proposal to adopt a capital improvement plan therefor. The proceeds of the https://gadcapital.com/online-payday-loans-no-credit-check/ will be used to finance various capital improvements within the City pursuant to Minnesota Statutes, Section 475.521.

All persons interested may appear and be heard at the time and place set forth above.

If a petition requesting a vote on the issuance of the bonds is signed by voters equal to 5 percent of the votes cast in the City in the last general election and is filed with the City within 30 days after the public hearing, the bonds may only be issued upon obtaining the approval of the majority of the voters voting on the question of issuing the bonds.

Individuals unable to attend the public hearing can make written comment by writing to Deb Little, City Clerk, City of Northfield, City Hall, 801 Washington Street, Northfield, Minnesota, 55057. Written comments must be received prior to the public hearing.

I’m glad that the Northfield News puts its public notices online; I hadn’t seen that before, so I was curious as to exactly where they get posted. After clicking around a bit I found it under Classifieds | Legals. If you want that information, the onus is on you to go to that page and check it a couple of times a week; no RSS feed or push notification for you!

As part of the Council decision making progress on financing the facilities projects identified in the 2010 – 2014 Capital Improvement Plan (CIP), the notice for the June 15th public hearing on the capital improvement bonds / capital improvement plan will appear in the Northfield News on Saturday. The ad states “the intention to issue general obligation capital improvement plan bonds in an amount not to exceed $14,400,000.”

Here is how the upper limit for the public safety facilities project was arrived at:

The land acquisition, site prep and construction cost figure was taken from KKE’s report to the Steering Committee last Tuesday and represents the highest cost option listed. A contingency of 8% was added – higher than the minimum recommended by the architect of 5%. Bond issuance costs were added along with capitalized interest. These are also estimated.

It is important to emphasize that the dollar amount stated in the public hearing notice is the maximum, not to exceed amount. The amount of any actual bonds issued in the future will be based upon actual costs / bid awards. It is also important to set the upper threshold high enough to ensure that all project costs are covered. It should also be noted this public hearing notification is required and a necessary step until the Council determines if the projects will be funded through CIP Bonding or hold a referendum on the project financing.

The Northfield city council affirmed its support of the Steering Committee’s recommendation that the Woodley site is preferred for a new fire facility. The council also affirmed the three southern sites (Cowles, Gleason and Jasnoch) are preferred for a new police station. At its work session on Tuesday, the council discussed preliminary estimates of costs for the projects, with a high-cost range of around $10.6 million and a low-cost range of about $8.6 million. At last night’s meeting, Northfield Community Development Manager Brian O’ Connell said the process is still on track for the council’s June 15th deadline for deciding on a funding strategy for the buildings.

Among all the things that are not clear to me on this subject, one thing stands out: Where did the June 15 deadline come from? Is the Council going to make a decision about the bonds the same night as the public hearing? Inquiring minds want to know.